Casinos derive much of their revenue from gaming machines such as slot machines, video poker machines, etc. Increasingly, casinos have come to rely on local area networks (or "LANs") for monitoring the activity of their various machines. With a LAN, the casino operator can easily tally the coin-in, coin-out, and other data associated with each gaming machine. In addition, the LANs of multiple casinos can communicate among themselves via a wide area network (or "WAN") to share information for various purposes. One such application of a WAN is in progressive games which allow jackpots from multiple machines in multiple locations to grow as one large jackpot. Thus, a player could win a potentially huge jackpot by playing a small denomination machine, e.g., a player could win one million dollars or more by playing a quarter (25 cent) slot machine, or as much as 8 to 9 million dollars by playing a dollar machine.
To maximize customer appeal, casino operators periodically move their various gaming machines to new locations within their establishments. Unfortunately, such moves can be difficult, time consuming, and expensive. This is particularly true for casinos in which the gaming machines are connected on a LAN. In such cases, many or all of the wire connections among the machines must be pulled out and replaced during each move. In fact, reconfiguring the wires is often the most expensive part of a move.
To simplify the moving procedure, it has been proposed to employ a "wireless" LAN in which each gaming machine includes a radio transceiver for communicating with a base station radio. The base station radio, in turn, communicates data from the gaming machines to a central host computer (sometimes referred to as a "server"). When it comes time to rearrange the floor layout of the gaming machines connected over a wireless LAN, the move can be made with comparative ease, as no wires need to be disconnected, reconnected, etc.
All wireless transceivers require an antenna to send and receive radio frequency signals. In the proposed wireless LANs for casinos, each gaming machine would have its own transceiver and associated antenna. Such antennas must be mounted in locations were they can send and receive radio signals unimpeded by structures which would absorb such signals. Thus, a machine antenna must not be blocked by a conductive structure in its "line of sight" with a radio base station's antenna. Being aware of this basic requirement, one might assume that an antenna should be placed on the exterior of a gaming machine at a location facing toward the base station's antenna.
Unfortunately, some gaming machine users can be expected to tamper with or destroy new structures prominently featured on the gaming machine exterior. Some users would likely try to defeat the new system by interfering with the transmission or reception of radio signals. Other users may be afraid to use a particular machine if it has a feature which is unfamiliar to them.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a new gaming machine design adapted to handle wireless transmission, but at the same time not encourage some users to tamper or discourage other users from playing.